Chinese Model Liu Wen Would Like to Remind Everyone That Not All Asians Look the Same

Liu Wen, who is often considered the first Chinese supermodel (and whom you'll most likely recognize as one of the faces of Estée Lauder for the past six years), recently opened up to New York Magazine's The Cut about what it was like being one of the first major Asian models in the United States. Among the revelations are Wen's confession that she doesn't consider herself to be beautiful (we beg to differ), that she's glad she chose not to have surgery on her monolids, and that one of the secrets to her awesome skin is a type of soup made with pigs' feet and collagen. But what struck us most was what she had to say about the stereotypes often associated with Asian women.

Wen eloquently sums up the idea that there's beauty in individuality. "I hope that when people see Asian women, they realize we are all different," she says. "A lot of time with Caucasian people, they just group us together as Asian. But even with different cities in China, people have different personalities.... We look Asian, but we still look different. We don't look the same."

Wen also goes on to talk about the evolution she's seen when it comes to how people perceive and appreciate monolids, and how makeup influenced that transformation. When asked whether she feels the way Asians perceive beauty has changed, she discusses how the perception of single eyelids has evolved in recent years. "Maybe before, double eyelids weren't as common. I think before, people didn't know how to treat it or make it up, so the beauty of it was judged unfairly.... I have gotten comments when people have seen pictures of me and have said, 'Oh, a single eyelid is beautiful.'" She also notes the importance of diversity of representation in the many images we're inundated with each day. "The girls who had single eyelids may have thought before that beauty only had one type of eye shape. But now they see more and more types, so there will be a change."